chapter four
question...?
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STEVE KNOWS HE MIGHT be acting a little crazy right now, but he's really not got much to lose, at this moment.
He's lost his friends, his girlfriend, and his crown has been given to King Billy Hargrove — and yet, whilst a few years ago he would've lost all hope — these are the least of his worries, right now.
Because he knows there's something going on with that goddamn pumpkin patch. Especially if Hawkins Lab is testing it. He knows something's wrong.
The only problem is, his ex-girlfriend (or ex-childhood best friend — pick whichever) is the daughter of the farmer whose pumpkin patch is currently rotten — so getting any information is a huge struggle for Steve, considering Lily hates him so much.
In fact, he's sure she finds it amusing not giving him what he wants. She's enjoying seeing him so frustrated.
But, he's decided he's going to take matters into his own hands. If Lily's not going to tell him anything, he's going to find out for himself.
And that's how he finds himself driving to Lily's house.
He's not exactly sure what it is he's going to say when he gets there... but it's the best plan he can come up with. At least if he sees the lab running tests, then he'll know what kind of stuff is going on in Lily's pumpkin patch...
He feels a strange sense of deja vu as he pulls up to the Wrights' home, and is immediately reminded of a few nights ago, when he had a drunken girl in his passenger seat, dropping bomb after bomb on him.
Steve still can't quite believe the whole reason he and Lily fell apart was because she overheard a conversation between him and his 'friends'. A conversation in which he'd been lying the entire time.
She'd stopped talking to him altogether after that day. He'd thought she had decided she was too cool for him, or something. She had completely ignored him... it was like he was invisible, and he'd never known why. It was only because he'd heard from someone else that she'd told her friends they'd broken up did he finally get the message.
And he'd decided he was no longer going to associate with Lily Wright and her arrogance.
And yet it was him, all along... she'd disappeared because of him. He'd never reached out to understand why she wasn't talking to him anymore, he was too wound up in the fact that she was ignoring him, and telling others they'd split up, not why she was doing it...
Steve wonders how different things might be if he'd put up more of a fight.
And now Lily might be in danger. And he feels some sort of responsibility — maybe it's the guilt for being the reason everything fell apart, or maybe it's because he knows what could happen to her — and not telling her was making his insides churn.
But he couldn't tell her, that was the problem. It would put her in more danger than what she's in now, which is absolutely ludicrous.
That fucking lab.
Steve's bad feeling is confirmed when he looks out of the window and sees plenty of scientists dressed all in white, taking rotten pumpkins and samples of the soil from the ground and locking them away in tight boxes.
He rolls his window down, and it's the smell that gives Steve goosebumps. He knows the smell from one of those... things from last year, he'll never forget it. But this is much more strong. Much more prominent... he knows this has something to do with it, he can feel it in his gut.
"What the fuck?!"
Steve's stomach drops. He had hoped to arrive and leave so quickly that Lily wouldn't have time to even realise he'd turned up at all.
But that was very naive of him.
"Why are you here? Get out!" She snaps, storming over to his car. "What is wrong with you?!"
Steve has no idea what to say. Lily is raging. Her complexion is becoming more red as she talks, her eyes piercing him like daggers.
"You showed up to my house because of some pumpkins?!" Lily continues to yell.
Those in the field turn around at the commotion and Steve starts to panic — but to them it just looks like a girl arguing with her boyfriend. Nothing out of the ordinary. They can't hear the exact words of the conversation.
"You poisoned them, didn't you? And now you're here to try and wriggle your way out of getting into trouble, right?"
"No!" Steve says, his eyes widening. Shit, this does look bad. "No! Lils — you don't understand,"
"Stop calling me Lils," Lily hisses. "You don't get to call me that anymore!"
"Lily," Steve corrects himself.
It just feels weird. Lily just doesn't roll off the tongue as well as Lils did. He supposes it's because the last time the two were speaking to each other, she was Lils to him. She had always been Lils — until she was nothing.
But now he has to call her Lily. He needs to get used to it, too — she's not his Lils anymore, and he knows that. He knows why, too.
"Why did you do it?" Lily continues. "We haven't had anything to do with each other for years! Why?"
Steve can't get over the hint of heartbreak in her voice. He's made a mistake, coming here.
"I didn't, Lily, I really didn't!" he protests. "I promise! You said it yourself, I've got no reason to!"
Lily's breath is shaking as she stands tense with folded arms.
"So they are doing tests," Steve mutters, his eyes shifting back to the patch.
"Yeah." Lily replies bluntly, looking back towards the crowd of white currently collecting dead pumpkins and soil. "But they won't be here much longer. They've gotta go and test everyone else's, too, so if you were gonna try and talk to them, to get yourself out of trouble, you better—"
Steve sighs. "I'm telling you, I didn't—"
But he pauses, suddenly feeling more nervous, his eyes meeting Lily's, once again.
"What do you mean, everyone else's?"
"Well you didn't just poison us, did you?" Lily sneers. "You got Eugene McCorkle, Jack O'Dell, Pete Freeling, Rick Neary, the Christensens. Everyone's crops are dead," she lists them all off on her fingers.
Steve's theory is beginning to become even more convincing. His face starts to drain of colour.
"And you know who they're blaming?" Lily continues. She's starting to rile up again. Steve can see her eyes glossing over as her voice shakes. "You know who they're blaming, for what you did? My Dad."
Steve doesn't know what to say. Or what to do.
"You thought it was funny to mess with my Dad?!" Lily continues. A stray tear escapes her left eye and she wipes it away furiously — almost angry with herself for crying. "He was always good to you, Steve!"
"It wasn't me!" Steve raises his voice, desperately. "Lily, I promise you — I swear on my life, it wasn't!"
Lily's seething. She can't think properly, Steve can tell. She looks lost, bringing her hands to her head and turning away from him, breathing heavily.
She doesn't turn back to look at him. Instead, he can only hear her voice. It's much more quiet this time. Much more hopeless.
"I want you to leave."
So he does.
Steve isn't exactly sure of what he'd expected, going to Lily Wright's house — but he certainly hadn't pictured it going quite as badly as this. Still, he'd managed to get what he wanted, and his gut feeling is confirmed true — whatever happened on the Wrights' farm has something to do with those people and has to link somehow with what happened last year.
How it links, exactly? Steve doesn't know, just yet — but it seems as though that lab doesn't either, considering they're only just running tests.
But if something strange is happening that links to last year — the people involved need to know. And he knows exactly who he's going to tell first.
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LILY DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO anymore. She feels all shaky and her stomach's constantly doing flips and all she really wants is to go to sleep, at this second — even if it is midday. It's exhausting, being so angry all the time.
She just doesn't understand. Her ex can't even look at her for a good couple of years and now he's turning up to her house all because of some pumpkins he swears he hasn't touched? It makes absolutely no sense. And yet, Lily has some sort of feeling deep down that he might be telling the truth about having nothing to do with them.
But then why was he so obsessed with the lab? What did he know that she didn't? The whole situation gives her a sickening feeling, and all she can think of his her dad and the amount of money he's lost from this.
Lily decides the next day to try and get herself together, so she puts on some blue jeans, a yellow tank top and a white cardigan (one of her cosiest possessions) over the top to go grocery shopping as a way of helping her dad out, giving him one less job to do. Lily likes to wear a comfy outfit, from time to time — it's a kind of fashion she strongly believes will never go out of style. And it looks great on her, too.
She's got some money from her café job to help pay for the groceries, and she's cautiously checking the prices of each item and figuring out which are the cheapest. Luckily, they're a small family, and she won't need much.
She's browsing through the frozen aisle when she looks up absentmindedly and accidentally catches sight of a boy with his back to her, standing in front of the aisle filled with bouquets of flowers — assumedly for Nancy. Lily's heart lurches. He'd never bought her flowers.
Why is he everywhere?
Lily thinks she's got some sort of bad karma, at this rate. Because everything seems to be so shit. And her optimistic mood that blossomed this morning is immediately drained once again — and the usual angry burn in her stomach resurfaces.
She quickly finishes up buying groceries, after this, and joins the long queue at the checkout. And, as if the universe is playing some cruel trick on her, Steve Harrington just so happens to be the next person to join the queue right behind her. Fantastic.
He doesn't say anything, at first. Lily thinks he must be staying quiet in case she lashes out at him in public. Wouldn't want to ruin his image, Lily thinks. She can feel her palms start to sweat as they clutch so tightly onto the shopping cart's handle. But she can't take it anymore. She's tired, and she's fucking furious. And Steve can have some of that taken out on him. He deserves it.
"What, are you fucking stalking me, now?" Lily says bitterly, turning around to face him.
She knows he clearly entered the store a long time after she turned up, and this time was just a coincidence — but she's still pissed off about him showing up at her house unannounced. And he still stood behind her in the queue. Could he not have waited at least until someone was there to separate the two in line?
She avoids looking at the bouquet of red roses he's holding.
Steve sighs, knowing just too well what he's in for.
"I promise, I did not know you were here," he says in a monotone voice that suggests he knows no matter what it is he says, nothing will change how Lily sees him.
But Lily doesn't lecture him further, at first — much to his surprise. And he almost thinks he's gotten away with it, as many customers begin to checkout and the line they're standing in starts to grow smaller.
Until the blonde whips her head around towards him, once again.
"What is your obsession with my dad's pumpkins?" She questions, almost too loudly for Steve's liking. He glances around nervously.
"No, seriously," Lily continues. "If you didn't poison them, like you say, then why do they matter so much to you, huh? Or is is the fact that Hawkins Lab is testing them that makes you so interested?"
Steve's starting to panic as Lily's voice begins to get louder.
"Calm down," he says, a lot more quietly than the girl, once again glancing around. "Lower your voice,"
"No!" she continues. "I want to know what's so worrying about the fact that some lab is putting tests on my pumpkins!"
"Lils— Lily," Steve warns.
"I want to know why it's taken my pumpkins to get poisoned and a bunch of scientists testing them for you to speak to me again after so many years? And why you think that you suddenly can after all that shit you said?"
"Lily! I mean it!" Steve says, more sternly, attempting to shush her once again. People are starting to notice her anger, and are beginning to turn from their positions to observe the commotion.
But she continues.
"And why, after all these years, is the only thing you care to talk about that stupid fucking lab?!"
Steve's panic is at a new high, so much so that he simply reaches forward and grabs the girl's shoulder, shocking Lily so much that she shuts up.
"I mean it," he says, so quietly he's barely muttering. "Stop talking so loudly. They're bad people, Lils — Lily," he corrects himself at the end.
Lily's silent, attempting to process what he's saying. Her brows furrow.
"What do you mean, bad people?" she replies, now at the same volume as Steve.
Steve looks stumped, unable to explain. But before he can, Lily's next in line and she reluctantly has to leave the conversation to go and pay for her groceries — much to his relief.
Steve's in disbelief with himself — he can't quite believe he's so suddenly let something that important slip to Lily, in public. His stomach starts to churn. He might've just gotten them both killed. There could be a bunch of Hawkins Lab soldiers on their way to both his and Lily's homes, right this second — waiting to greet them as they walk through the door.
He thinks of Merril Wright, currently alone at home. Steve doesn't have to question whether the lab would get him involved, either.
What has he done?
Lily waits for him outside once she's left the grocery store, ready to ambush him once he's finished buying Nancy's flowers.
And she does — she follows him all the way to his car, asking repeatedly what he knows, and why Hawkins Lab is so bad — but all he gives is one word answers, or he says,
"I can't explain,"
But Lily's not backing down. He's gotten her involved this far, he's bothered her almost everyday they've been at school this week — the least she deserves is some sort of clarification.
Steve looks at her, feeling defeated. He's used to seeing her brown eyes so angry and stern, by now — but the hint of worry on her face doesn't go unnoticed, especially when he's become accustomed to her dirty looks. He thinks once again of those Hawkins Lab soldiers ready to greet her once she arrives home and he can't help but feel some sort of responsibility for her.
If Lily gets killed by that lab, it'll be his fault. And so, after she's asked perhaps the tenth question in the past minute, he sighs and opens his car door.
"Get in, and I'll explain," he says gently.
Lily's thinking of her father, and the trust she knows he's put into those scientists. She decides that enduring a few moments of pain talking to Steve Harrington might just be worth it if it saves her farm.
So, she loads her groceries into the trunk of his car and then gets into his passenger seat (oddly, for the second time, this week).
And Lily is completely unaware of, when Steve starts up his engine, the kind of fiasco she's about to be driven into — all because of some goddamn pumpkins.
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AUTHORS NOTE
💗 woooooo we're finally getting into the thick of it, now!! i'm acc excited to start writing dialogue that isn't just steve asking about lily's pumpkins and lily telling him to fuck off
💗 also very excited to introduce lily to more characters in the next chapter!! i already know when she meets dustin she's gonna be like wtf is this kid
💗 anyways i hope you enjoyed!! i know it has been quite slow so far but now she's officially involved in the s2 storyline, shits gonna pick up quite a bit in the next chapter. thanks for reading!! let me know what you thought <33